Coming out of the west gate of the Agora, a stepped road on the left led to the temple. This road is not excavated at present. Of the shops to the south of the Agora, the one farthest out was the second road leading to the temple. This is the road used today.
Roman religions did not promise a life after death. Egyption religions inferred reincarnation. Therefore Egyptian religions were also estemed in Ephesus. A temple of Isis was constructed in the Upper Agora and a Temple of Serapis in the vicinity of the Mercantile Agora lower down.
The Temple of serapis consisting of a naos and a pronaos was in the form of a typical prostyle. It was built of large blocks of marble of which the weight would be 40-50 tons at first sight. This is a most significant particularity of Egyptian religious buildings. The monolithic columns with Corinthian capitals had a diameter of 1.5 metres. The door of the edifice had two wings and was very wide. As the opening and closing of such big and heavy doors would be difficult, rollers were placed under them. The trace in the form of an arc visible on the stylobate was produced by the movement to and fro of the roller.
It is understood that in front of the building there was a courtyard of a length of 160 metres with columns on the sides. The unfinished state of certain construction materials here and in the close vicinity of the edifice show that the Temple of Serapis was not completed.
Trades relations between Egypt and Ephesus had begun before the Hellenistic period and many works of art were brought to Ephesus from Egypt. The foundation of Alexandria togeher with the beginning of the Hellenistic period brought the relations between Egypt and Ephesus to a climax. And although these relations were restricted during the reign of the Emperor Augustus they were revived in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Depicted in a treaty document on display in the Ephesus Musuem was a wreath with on one side the greatest goddess of Ephesus, Artemis, and on the other the greatest god of Egypt, Serapis. The god and the godess must have been witnesses to the treaty.
Temple of Serapis, Ephesus
Beautiful…great experience ! I personnally loved it as I am found of History, but my husband found it tiring, but we enjoyed the scenery and the history.
Archaeologists believe that the Temple of Serapis hailing from the second century was never completed. It was built to commemorate one of the Egyptian gods of that time and is a testimony to the lively environment of those times where by an Egyptian temple was constructed in the commercial center of a Turkish town.
The statue inside has been constructed of Egyptian granite of fine quality and there are many inscriptions inside the temple which tell a tale commemorating its construction for a particular Egyptian god.
The construction is similar to the Corinthian style with many columns constructed out of fine marble and granite. The main gate slides open on rollers and an iron gate leads towards the statue of Serapis.
The god is believed to be Serapis and in fact another statue of the god along with the leading goddess of Ephesians who was known as Artemis is found in the museum where both are carrying a garland symbolizing peace and prosperity.
The reason for this mingling of Turkish and ancient Egyptian culture was basically because the town had strong commercial bonds with the port city of Alexandria in Egypt. Since Egypt was the largest producer of wheat during ancient times there was constant trading of wheat in exchange for the commercial products from the town of Ephesus.
Since Turkey has been influenced by many cultures the Temple of Serapis in Ephesus Turkey was later converted to a church by the Christian evangelists and you can still see the remains of baptistery on the eastern side of the Temple.
The Temple of Serapis, to the west of the Agora there is a square, measuring seventy-three by one hundred and six meters. Columned galleries surrounded the square on three sides, the fourth (south) side being a prostyle temple. This is the temple of Serapis which was found during the excavations of the square carried out between 1913 and 1926.
The front of the temple was twenty nine meters wide, fifteen meters high and decorated with eight enormous monoliths, Corinthian columns, carved out of massive blocks of marble. Similar blocks seem also to have been used in the construction of the ornate roof and door supports.
A huge door (the leaves of which were mounted on wheels to facilitate opening and closing) gave access to the Cella. Under the paving stones and in various places in the Cella there were water conduits. No inscriptions have so far been found to indicate to whose worship this very costly building and the surrounding constructions were devoted. It is wrong tc call it the temple of Claudius, since in style it belongs to the second half of the 2nd century A.D.
Considering the popularity of Oriental gods at this time and the particularly close trade relations between Ephesus and Alexandria it seems likely that the temple was dedicated to an Egyptian god such as Isis or Serapis. An Egyptian temple is known to have existed at Ephesus, and the theory that the temple was a Serapeum is supported by the presence of a piece of Egyptian granite and an Egyptian’s dedication to his Serapis-worshipping countrymen.
Ephesus is an amazing city. Not to be missed if you like ancient history or Christian history.
Serapis temple dates from the 2nd century, one of the Egyptian gods. It is of considerable importance as evidence of the atmosphere of tolerance that existed in Ephesus, the cosmopolitan character of whose population allowed the proliferation of a number of different religious beliefs. It is built in the Corinthian order, with marble of very high quality, and is remarkable for the size of its monolithic columns, some of them rising to a height of 12 ill. A door opening on rollers gives access to a long cult chamber in which a statue of Egyptian granite is thought to have stood.
Some of the monolithic blocks weigh over 50 tonnes. It would appear to have been left unfinished. There are no inscriptions.
The Ephesus site, this great outdoor museum of Turkey is perhaps one of the the best-preserved ancient cities we have visited. The highlight of the trip was a visit to Sirince village for a private lunch of the traditional Turkish cuisine.